Self Publishing 101: Have a Plan
As we crossed into a new year (and a new decade at that) many are typically thinking about setting new goals or resolutions to reach. One of my goals for 2020 was to post more blog content that my followers will find helpful. When thinking about my last post on the highlights for 2019, it dawned on me that the most popular post of all time is: 7 Things that I wish I knew before Self Publishing. I think one of the reasons why that post got the most comments and likes was that it resonated with so many readers who are likely aspiring writers who either already self-published or were in the process of self-publishing.
Like many first time self-publishers I found myself unprepared for the business side of publishing. High level I knew what to do but not how to do it well. As a result several mistakes were made that I had to go back and correct. One of my biggest takeaways I mentioned was that I wish I had a plan before self-publishing. After a series of trial and errors I learned that the very first step in self-publishing is have a plan. Why is a plan so important to self-publishing? And how can you create your own plan for your next launch? Read on as I answer each of those questions.
Planning: Why important?
The planning stage is first and arguably the most important step in the publishing journey. Unfortunately, this step is easily glossed over or skipped altogether by new writers. This is a very grave mistake for writers. Rushing through the process often results in many careless mistakes being made. The result is often a “half-baked” book that comes across as unprofessional, cheap, and poorly written to readers. This will cost you in loss revenue, poor reviews, and not to mention untold frustration.
As a writer I challenge you to do two things. First you need to back up for a minute and set goals for yourself. Is your goal to land on the New York’s Times best seller’s list or support yourself full time from your writing? Or maybe your goals are more modest. Perhaps you see this merely as a side venture or a way to make extra cash on the side. Your goal for your book may be different from the next writer. After all success is how you define it. If you have an ambitious goal you may want to start with smaller benchmarks that are more attainable. Whatever goal you decide on you need a plan. Without a concrete plan on how you are going to reach your publishing goals you may find yourself floundering in this ever-changing, competitive market. It then becomes critical to have a clear vision of who your book is for and how to get it in front of your readers.
For a writer obscurity is almost as bad if not worse than getting poor reviews. That’s why it’s essential to come up with a comprehensive plan that will address how you will sell the book.
How to build your plan
During this early publishing stage, you should be able to answer the who, what, where, when, why, and how of your approach. Let’s take a look at some of the most important questions that you would want to answer before you get too far along in the process:
Who is the book for?
What is the book for?
Where will you publish the book?
When will you publish?
Why are publishing?
How will you publish?
Of course, these aren’t the only questions you need to ask yourself. Rather this should form the basis for the other questions you will need to address in your plan. But if you can’t answer any one of these basic questions you need to stop where you are and go back to the drawing board before you hit publish because you’re not ready. I would recommend coming up with the plan before you even write your book. Why do I say that?
Consider one of the questions: Who is the book for? That question alone should prompt you to identify your target audience. Knowing your audience for your work could help you determine whether there will be a demand for the type of book you write. Knowing the demand for your particular genre/subgenre and the size of that audience could be an indicator for the amount of sales you can expect to make. Granted knowing there is a smaller market for a particular genre shouldn’t necessarily stop you from writing what you want. On the flip side having the knowledge early on can help you set realistic expectations for your book and even tailor your book to your target audience’s expectations.
Conversely without knowing your target audience, you won’t know who or how to market your book to. You will have a much harder time marketing your book without an audience to read it. These are two things that could happen if the intended audience or content is unclear to the reader 1) it will go largely ignored 2 readers who have no appreciation for your genre/subgenre or your style of writing will rate it poorly because they thought it was one way when they first purchased it only to discover “it wasn’t what they expected.” As I’ll mention later in a future post, marketing can be pricey (depending on the methods you use) and not to mention time-consuming! So, you want to make your marketing efforts count. To save you precious time, energy and resources it’s better to direct your efforts to the people that are more likely to read it.
Once we can answer the basic questions now, we can start drilling down another layer? For example, for the question: How will you publish? You have the option to traditionally publish or self-publish. But digging deeper you can consider what self-publishing service you will use (e.g. Amazon’s KDP Select, Smashwords, Lulu, etc.)? What type of format will your book be available in (e.g. eBook, Paperback, hardcover, audiobook)?
Another very important question is: how will you market the book? Other questions to consider are: How about beta readers, editors, book formatters, cover designers, and more? They all play an important role in getting the book ready before it’s launched to the world. Will you handle this yourself or hire professional help? Granted you may not have all the details this early on and that’s OK. As you move along in the other steps you should start filling in the gaps. As part of your exercise think about supporting questions for the who, what, where, when, why, and how questions.
Stay tuned for future posts where I break down each step in the self-publishing process.
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For those interested in learning more about building a detailed plan around your next book launch sign up to my free newsletter here and I will give you a free template as a starting point.
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